GOG joins Europe’s largest game preservation coalition

Games marketplace GOG has joined the ranks of the European Federation of Video Game Archives, Museums, and Preservation. This follows the November 2024 announcement of the GOG Preservation Program, the platform’s independent effort to ensure that games remain playable on modern hardware, even if the titles can no longer be officially sold on GOG or other marketplaces. So far, this program includes more than 100 DRM-free titles (which means you don’t need a separate license to play them), with new games added every day.

The EFGAMP is a nonprofit entity founded in 2012 with the mission of physical and digital media preservation. This is accomplished with the help of a broad spectrum of institutions like The Royal Library of Denmark, Germany’s Computerspielemuseum, The National Videogame Museum in the UK, and The Video Game History Foundation in the United States. GOG and other member organizations are able to pool resources and benefit from each others work as outlined in the EFGAMP member statute.

Games preservation remains a vital but relatively thankless endeavor, but it is more important than ever. In the past year alone, dozens of titles have become unattainable, with even more games dying off due to a lack of developer support. This is only exacerbated by the continuing epidemic of studio closures and layoffs, which often lead to the loss of legacy or in-development assets that could otherwise benefit future developers.

The cooperation between EFGAMP and GOG presents some interesting opportunities considering GOG is the first games distributor to join the organization. It’s possible GOG could try to make some of its archived titles playable, for example, but that’s solely speculation — and it’s unlikely we’d see things of that nature anytime soon if they were in the works. While you can’t support the efforts of EFGAMP with direct donations, its associated organizations, including the Video Game History Foundation, always welcome monetary donations if you’d like to pledge your support.